


Argent Night

by harpydora



Category: Friends at the Table (Podcast)
Genre: Background Jacqui Green/Aria Joie, Families of Choice, Fluff, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, Holidays, Season: COUNTER/Weight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-09
Updated: 2019-02-09
Packaged: 2019-10-25 03:20:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17717054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/harpydora/pseuds/harpydora
Summary: Cass has been on Counterweight for ten years now and every one of those ten years, Argent Night still manages to sneak up on them. At least this year, Aria gives them some warning."You know Argent Night is in two weeks, right?" she asks, poking them in the shoulder as she flops down on the couch next to them.





	Argent Night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GiltMalediction (demondreams)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/demondreams/gifts).



> This is my Secret Samol gift for @GiltMalediction! They requested the Chime celebrating the holidays with an emphasis on them being together and enjoying their found family. I love some good Chime shenanigans so I couldn't resist the prompt. Hope you don't mind that I completely ignored the canon timeline oops. Enjoy!

Cass has been on Counterweight for ten years now and every one of those ten years, Argent Night still manages to sneak up on them. At least this year, Aria gives them some warning.

"You know Argent Night is in two weeks, right?" she asks, poking them in the shoulder as she flops down on the couch next to them.

They scowl at her from behind their tablet and reading glasses. "You know Apostolosians don't celebrate that. It's an OriCon holiday."

"But it's fun, and you aren't on Apostolos. This is Counterweight, where all sorts of cultures come together to mix in one big grimy soup!" She turns her most pitiful puppy-dog eyes on them. "C'mon, it'll make Mako and AuDy and Jacqui and Orth happy."

They take off their reading glasses, fold them up, and slip them into the breast pocket of their jacket with a sigh. "I'm pretty sure AuDy doesn't care about holidays, and I don't think Orth has a single party bone in his entire body."

"I bet you're wro-ong," Aria sing-songs.

"Okay, let's say I agree to your holiday celebration or whatever. What would I even do? It isn't like I'm up on my Argent Night traditions."

Aria grins and pats them on the cheek. "I bet you'd make a mean solemnberry pie. You don't even have to do that. You can make whatever you want, since we're supposed to be doing the melting pot thing."

Cass sighs again. Of course she goes directly for their favorite pastime. It's been far too long since they've had the opportunity to stretch their culinary skills. After a few moments, they relent. "Okay, fine."

A delighted smile spreads across Aria's face. She claps her hands together. "Great! This is gonna be _so good._ Probably the best Argent party ever."

It was in that moment that Cass knew they were doomed.

*

Per Aria's orders, Cass finds themself in the common room with Mako, AuDy, Jacqui, and a giant box of Argent Day decorations Aria produced from somewhere in _The Kingdom Come's_ cargo hold. Mako holds a spool of fairy-lights while Cass holds a second. AuDy and Jacqui, as the ones with the longest reach, have been nominated to hang the lights from the ceiling.

"So, how'd Aria rope you into this?" Mako asks of the room in general.

"I didn't want to celebrate it alone," Jacqui says. "Besides, she said 'please.'"

"Oh, _did_ she?" Mako grins and waggles his eyebrows. Jacqui scowls at him, but she doesn't turn away fast enough for Cass to miss the hint of a blush high on her cheeks. Huh.

"What about you two?" he asks, his attention swinging back around to Cass and AuDy. "Didn't think robots and fish scions celebrated this kind of thing."

Cass presses their lips into a thin line before responding, "I don't, but Aria insisted. She also asked me to cook."

"So the way to your heart is through your cooking," Mako says, satisfied with the answer. "How 'bout you, AuDy?"

"Aria promised me a bromeliad," AuDy states as they tack up more of the lights. "And she will pay for dinner for Cene at a restaurant of Cene's choosing."

A mischievous glint flashes in Mako's eyes. "Is _that_ all it takes to get you to do something?"

Without missing a beat, AuDy replies, "Not for you."

"Aww, you're no fun!"

"That is correct," AuDy says. They tug more lights from the spool Cass holds and tacks up another length of it.

*

The closer Argent Night gets, the more excitable Aria grows. Above and beyond the decorations she'd instructed the rest of them to put up, Aria puts up silver moons all around _The Kingdom Come's_ common room, until it looks like a shiny planetarium. Each one has been lovingly polished to a mirror sheen so they all reflect the fairy-lights when they're lit at night.

"You're really going all out, huh?" Mako remarks one evening as he settles next to Cass on the sofa.

"It's Argent Night," Aria says by way of explanation.

"I mean, yeah, but we never did anything this fancy back on September, and they have more cred than half of OriCon," he presses as he shifts, trying to get comfortable. He accidentally elbows Cass in the side, and Cass retaliates by shouldering him away.

"It's just a really important holiday to me." Aria hangs another moon from a magnetic hook on the wall. "My moms and dad were really big on celebrating it, and it just feels like I can be close to them even though I'm so far away. Besides, my Argent Night album is awesome."

"I didn't know you had an Argent Night album," says Jacqui from the entryway to the galley. She cradles a huge bowl of popcorn in her hands. Cass can't imagine trying to eat popcorn with cybernetic hands like hers—what if the kernels get stuck in the joints?—but to each their own, they guess.

Aria shrugs. "Yeah, it got a super limited release, but they still play it on loop in some of Joypark around the holiday."

"Is it too late to beg for a signed copy as a gift?" Mako asks.

"I'm pretty sure I can get you one of those," Aria says. "I didn't think you collected records, or I would've gotten you my discography."

Mako turns toward Jacqui, an impish smile on his face. "Oh, it's not for me. It's for a _friend._ "

Jacqui just glares daggers at him. At this rate, Cass isn't sure he'll make it to the night itself.

*

Orth, as it turns out, makes a surprisingly good assistant in the kitchen. He has good knife discipline, knows how to caramelize tamara onions, and he cleans as he goes—which makes him infinitely better to cook with than Mako based on that alone.

"I never cared for celebrating Argent Night myself," Orth says. His hands are steady as he chops up the root vegetables Cass has washed. "But Aria can be persuasive."

"Did she promise you a bromeliad and dinner for Cene, too?" Cass jokes.

"So _that's_ how she got AuDy in on this. I was wondering." Orth snorts. "No, she mostly pointed out the importance of family and spending time with your loved ones. Though I guess that might be a sore spot for you."

"No, it's fine. My family wasn't really that close anyway by the time I got shipped out." They shake their head. "Friendship is important, too."

"Sometimes friends and family can be the same thing, Cass," Orth says.

"I know," Cass agrees. "I mean, I'm making dinner for a holiday I don't celebrate because my co-worker-slash-friend asked me to do it."

Orth laughs. "I guess that's true. Anyway, what do you need me to do next?"

*

Jacqui's, Aria's, and Mako's eyes go wide as Orth and Cass bring the first course out to set on the cramped table. It wouldn't be quite so tight if AuDy hadn't claimed one end of the table for their own ("Captain's privilege," they'd said). Aria sits at the other end as the de facto leader of the Argent Night celebration, leaving Mako and Jacqui to sit to either side of her and for Cass and Orth to elbow in on AuDy's end of the table. The spread takes up most of the table surface, leaving only a little room for plates and silverware.

Once everyone is seated, Aria stands and raises her half-filled glass. "I know there's supposed to be a speech before you eat dinner tonight, but the food looks too good to do that kind of thing. So, um. I just wanted you guys to know how special this is to me that you'd all be here. Argent Night means a lot to me, and it means a lot that I have my family here with me, too."

Jacqui reaches over and places her hand on the back of Aria's. "Hey, there's nowhere else I'd rather be than right here tonight," she says softly.

"Yeah! You did a good job organizing all this," Mako says, gesturing widely at the decorations and the food in front of him.

Cass crosses their arms. "I think you'll find that Orth and I organized the food."

"Yeah, but only because Aria bribed you," Mako counters.

"Shh," Jacqui hisses, glaring at both of them. They subside. It turns out being shushed by a woman with large metal arms and at least a foot of height on you is exactly as intimidating as it sounds.

"It's the best Argent Night party I've been to," Cass hedges, which earns them a tiny nod from Jacqui.

"You should eat before the food gets cold," AuDy says.

"Whoops! Guess I ended up doing a speech after all, huh?" Aria ducks her head sheepishly as she sits back down. "Anyway, let's get this dinner started."

*

Mako's two drinks in when he ropes AuDy into helping him setup the cheap little party karaoke rig he got ages ago. Aria and Cass groan, but Jacqui's lights up at the sight—and, weirdly, so does Orth.

Everyone is three drinks in before someone steps up to actually _use_ the fool thing.

Orth leaves his jacket on the back of his chair and grabs one of the microphones. "Alright, let's see how out-of-date this thing is," he says.

Mako shrugs. "I got it second-hand, so who knows. You really gonna subject us to your warbling when we're trying to digest dinner?"

"I'll have you know, Mako Trig, that I'm far better at 'warbling' than you could ever try to be," Orth says with a scowl. Then he switches his attention to swiping through the available catalog of songs. Finally, he stops. "This will have to do."

Suddenly, the strains of an old pop ballad—rendered a little tinny by the karaoke machine's underpowered speaker—start playing. Cass sort of recognizes the tune, which doesn't mean much, but Jacqui's face splits into a wide grin. "Oh _hell_ yes," she says, hopping up and grabbing the other microphone. "I used to love this song when I was a kid! Shove over, this is a duet now!"

Orth obliges, shifting aside so he and Jacqui both can see the projection of the song's words in the air.

Jacqui, as it turns out, has quite the set of pipes on her, and Orth's singing voice is horrific. But they're both leaning against each other and grinning by the time the song is over.

Mako swipes both mics as soon as they're done and passes one to Cass and the other to Aria. "One of you _please_ sing something better," he pleads.

Aria glances at Cass. "Age before beauty," she says with a wink.

"Hey now, Cass is plenty pretty," Mako protests.

Cass heaves a long-suffering sigh and steps up in front of everyone. They scan through the song list, looking for something—anything—that might be in their range. Finally, something catches their eye. They smirk. It's only fair that they have their revenge.

It just so happens that this catalog of karaoke songs contains the title track from Aria's elusive Argent Night album.

*

Aria flops down on the sofa next to Cass and tips her head back to look at the fairy-lights above. AuDy's chassis glints in their scattered light, except where Mako slumps against them. His snores echo throughout the common room. Jacqui and Orth made their exits an hour ago after some minimal cleanup, which leaves the rest of the Chime to end the night as they see fit.

"This was really nice, Cass," Aria whispers as she switches to leaning her head on their shoulder. "It meant a lot to me that you showed up. That you all did."

"Sorry for being kind of shitty about it when you asked," Cass replies in equally hushed tones. They're not sure _why_ they're being so quiet when Mako could sleep through the dome collapsing around him, but it seems rude not to whisper in return.

Aria hums. "It's okay. I know you're a grumpy asshole, but I figured you'd come through in the end. You always do."

They lapse into silence after that, Aria's head on their shoulder and nothing but the fairy-lights to illuminate them. Eventually, Aria's soft snores join Mako's louder ones, and Cass sighs.

"Hey, AuDy, are you in sleep mode?" Cass says, keeping their voice pitched low.

"No," comes the surprisingly quiet response.

"You wanna put Mako to bed while I get Aria?"

A moment passes in which Cass is certain that they'll say 'no,' but AuDy finally says, "That is agreeable. Mako is drooling on me."

Despite themself, Cass chuckles. "Gross."

"Yes," AuDy agrees.

"Did you enjoy yourself before the drool happened, at least?" Cass asks as they try to stand without jostling Aria too much. Out of the corner of their eye, they can see AuDy trying to do the same.

"I do not regret my attendance," AuDy says, and they leave it at that. It's doubtlessly the most ringing endorsement of the celebrations that Cass has heard yet.

"Yeah, me either."

**Author's Note:**

> I imagine Orth and Jacqui singing "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey.


End file.
